I could get used to training camps in Hawaii in January. Back home in Colorado the high today was 18 degrees. Here in Hawaii it was nearly 80 degrees, with temperatures reaching into the 90s in some areas. Lance is fired up, too. He's excited about the new RadioShack team, his conditioning and the possibilities that 2010 hold.

Before I got here I knew Lance was in good shape, but with our different travel schedules I hadn't seen Lance in nearly two months. As soon as we headed out for a ride on the first day I was here, it was immediately clear that his conditioning is right on target.

Everyone knows there's a cumulative impact from training and racing, so it's not too surprising that Lance is in better shape in January 2010 compared to January 2009. He has a complete season of racing and training in his legs again, including the Tours of California, Italy and France. He's leaner, stronger, faster and more flexible than at this point last year.

In addition to taking advantage of the great weather and big climbs near Kona, Hawaii, for long hours of riding, Lance has been spending time working with new technologies and techniques. Sports scientist Allen Lim and Dr. Stacy Sims from Stanford University are here working with Lance on strategies for managing core temperature, and the results are very promising. Allen also has some great ideas about hydration and nutrition, some of which he used with Team Garmin and some that are new. He's an impressive sports scientist and I think he's going to be a great asset to Lance and the entire RadioShack team.

Innovation has always been a cornerstone of Lance's training, and one of the common threads that unites the people who have been working with him for a long time is that we're all eager to find, evaluate and implement new ideas. Over the past 20 years I've learned that in the pursuit of maximum performance--in any endeavor, be it athletics, business or science--there's little benefit to being provincial or territorial. When I was at USA Cycling in the 1990s, I brought in sports scientists to help the coaches and riders take advantage of new technologies. At the time, that meant supplemental oxygen training, altitude training, and the first trips to the wind tunnel with the team pursuit squad. Fast forward to 2010, and having a sports scientist like Allen working with RadioShack is important for continuing to implement the newest information and technologies for optimizing performance.

January is a very good time for working on new technologies and techniques. The training Lance is doing is specific to climbing (4x 20-minute ClimbingRepeat efforts), time trialing (3x 10-minute time trial efforts), and overall endurance (4-6 hour rides), but his major racing goals are several months away. Experimenting with cooling strategies, time trial positions, and new equipment is best done when training goals are more general. As you get closer to big events and the training gets more and more race-specific, you don't want to be experimenting and making changes.

It's also important to remember that riders need time to adapt to changes to their position or eating and drinking habits on the bike. Working on these aspects of performance in January ensures that there's plenty of time to monitor and evaluate the impacts of new ideas. For example, years ago we tried a time trial bike with a narrower bottom bracket in an effort to reduce aerodynamic drag. The wind tunnel testing data indicated that the narrower bike would be faster, but in practice it turned out that Lance couldn't produce as much power over the course of a one-hour time trial effort on that bike. Fortunately, the testing was done early enough that there was time to get him back to full-speed on a normal-width TT bike before the Tour de France.

I'm feeling very optimistic about 2010. All the tools and resources that are necessary for Lance to have a great season are in place and running smoothly. He's healthy, happy, excited and focused. I've been around the guy for 20 years, and when years start out like this one is, very good things often follow.

Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong's personal coach and CEO of Carmichael Training Systems, which is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary by offering a Free Training Camp with Chris Carmichael to all new coaching members. Visit www.trainright.com for details. You should also follow Chris at twitter.com/trainright.